User Perspectives on a Visual Aid to Program Comprehension

In an experiment to investigate the utility of variable dependency diagrams, the unsolicited comments of the participants provides important insights into the characteristics of effective visualisations. The data obtained during the experiment provides support for these insights and suggests that to be effective, visualisations must unify the information they provide with the needs of programmers. As well, programmers require training in the use of specific visualisations since, during maintenance tasks, their need to focus on the task causes them to avoid the distraction of learning new, unfamiliar tools. When maintenance requires source code manipulation, visualisations must be capable of directly linking information to the code, as programmers are often incapable or unwilling to identify relationships between the visualisation and the code.